Optical communication, such as by fiber-optic cables, is in widespread use today. Optical communication allows for larger volumes of information to transmitted at faster velocities across a network with reduced occurrence of degradation of signal integrity, when compared to electrical communication using metallic conductors such as copper wires.
Though an effective form of transfer of information, optical communication is not without shortcomings. One such shortcoming is in the area of signal conversion from an optical signal to an electrical signal. This conversion is often necessary because currently, most of the devices which ultimately use the information carried by the optical signal, such as personal computers, operate by using electrical signals. To this end, optical modules such as transceiver are often used to convert optical signals into electrical signals, and vice versa.
Typically, a transceiver includes an optical port for receiving an optical connector of a fiber optics cable, and associated signal processing circuitry for converting optical signals received through fiber optics cable into electrical signals. The use of transceiver s, however, is not without shortcomings.
In some transceiver s, an opening in the transceiver housing which allows for an optical connector to be connected to the transceiver housing via an optical port is too large for certain class of optical connectors, resulting in the emission of the optical port's electromagnetic inductive (EMI) radiation from the opening. This emission or escaping of EMI radiation may cause interferences resulting in reduction or loss of integrity of the transmitted information. In addition, many transceiver housings include several optical ports for receiving multiple optical connectors. This scenario further exacerbates the effects of the EMI radiation as each optical connector can interfere with other optical connectors of the transceiver housing, and vice versa.